HUMMING-BIRDS AND HT T'rKRFLIKS. lOI 



Thev have a short flight, mikI liop and flit from branch to 

 branih with graceful c'ase. 'Jliey live in families, and build 

 their nests in the hollows of trees. 



l^hey feed chieflv on fruit, and it is very amusing to see 

 jiow they seize and swallow them. F'irst they lay hold of the 

 fruit with the extremity of their long bill, then they throw it 

 upwards into the air, catch it in their open bill and 

 .swallow it. When searchinor for fruit, thev have the habit of 

 placing sentinels in different parts, and if there is any cause 

 of alarm, they begin to scream in such a noisy way that they 

 are heard miles off. 



I also collected several species of Humming Birds, 

 Pyrrliophaena cyanura, Lampornis prevosti, Sancerottia 

 sophiae, and Chrysuronia cliciae. This last species was only 

 found in the forests. It is a beautiful bird, with a blue throat 

 and the tail entirelv metallic grolden. 



In Insects, I collected many species of butterflies and 

 moths, some of which were very fine. My principal hunting 

 grounds were the Barrancas^ deep narrow ravines which 

 surround the town, and w^hich are rather dangerous at times, 

 because they are used by the natives for conveying cattle from 

 one place to another. The sides of these ravines being very 

 steep in places, it was not always an easy matter to find a place 

 of shelter until the cattle had passed. Otherwise they were 

 delightful, cool, and green, the sides being covered with 

 small trees, bushes, and plants of all descriptions. These 

 ravines are sometimes many miles long, and many were 

 the species of Papiiios, Morphos, Heliconi and others, which 

 I caught there. 



Another grood collectincr around was on the road from 

 Granada to the lake, or on the margin of the last. In the dry 

 season, at all wet spots on the road, or on the margin of the lake, 

 hundreds of species of butterflies used to assemble together to 

 drink. They were scrambling one upon another, and it was 

 an easy task to gather as many as one choose, or even to 

 select the species wanted, as they never fled awav. 

 Every wet spot Avas invaded by hundreds of them, which took 

 no notice of the collector. It was an extraordinary sis^ht 

 indeed to see these patches where all colours imaginable were 

 mixed together. 



Lastly, I collected some rare and fine species in the 

 hacienda (farm) of the French Consul, my friend Mr. Rouhaud, 

 now known, as Valle Menier, the property of the celebrated 

 Parisian chocolale manufacturers. 



